20. Baptism
Having spent a stressful fourteen days on Tortuga, the party had opted to flee the island and Nogg the Dread Drake's challenge by accepting an offer from Nix. In exchange for Clwyd joining his household and nurturing a mote of power he would install in her, the party were told they could be taken anywhere in the world, provided Nix had been there before. However, this also required them to travel via Nix's household in the Nine Hells and spend one night there. Thus, the party found themselves at a set of docks on a bank of the River Styx, in the grounds of the Telphousila Estate in the fifth layer of the Hells. Nix had a set of palanquins carried by merregons carry the group through the grounds. Nix's mother and the head of the household, the erinys Telphousila, was busy entertaining an important guest, so they were unable to go to the main palace. Nix had them taken to the estate's guest house, an enormous, dark building sporting macabre decoration and Gothic architecture. Along the way, they went past some workshops so Nix could show Clwyd the fearsome hellfire engine being put together by a great many imps and spined devils. The party were shown their rooms and told to make themselves comfortable while Nix took Clwyd to the estate's palace to complete the necessary formalities. While they waited, the others in the party encountered Erys, a pearlescent cambion with a warm, kind smile, apparently Nix's sibling. Erys left a small, runtish hell cat in the care of the party to keep them entertained. It proved to be quite endearing and simultaneously a vicious fiend in its own right - biting Cormorant's finger right through to the bone at one point. In the main house, Clwyd was taken into a large room fully occupied by a brazier that burned without fuel, its flames a little too structured. This, Nix explained, was hellfire - the reason the Hell they were currently on existed at all. Nix used his spear to place a candle flame's worth of the fire onto Clwyd's right hand, telling her to think of what she wanted this power for and to use that to shape her will and resolve. If she wasn't strong enough, the fire would sear her to the bone and potentially leave nothing behind. And at first it did burn. It claimed her whole hand and made her scream out in pain. But Clwyd did as Nix said, and she thought about her family that were dead and the thousand-year struggle of her people that was being undone by one madman she'd vowed to kill. She'd do anything to kill him, she'd decided. And when she returned to herself, the flames had sunk into her skin, warming her from the inside but no longer burning. Her hand was ugly and scarred pink and black, but it didn't pain her. The hellfire was a part of her. Nix smiled and declared her Clwyd of Telphousila. As the pair returned to the rest of the group, Nix took to explaining a number of ways Clwyd could further herself and the household back in Terca Mahres, and how she'd be rewarded for doing so. The party were promised revels, being guests in Nix's home under the rules of sacred hospitality. As such, Nix decided they'd have an event in the evening, following some hunts that he'd learned his mother was putting on for her own esteemed guest. Until the hunts began however, the group were offered a chance to see as much of the estate as they wished. They got a closer look at the hellfire engine being produced, seeing a number of lemures around the estate as they did. Wilfred took the opportunity to ask Nix about the purpose of devils and the cause they fought for, despite warnings from the cambion that he might not like the answer, potentially making mortal hopes and dreams seem rather small by comparison. Since the group insisted, Nix told them a little of the Blood War - the endless battle between devils and demons happening on the First Hell. Demons, he explained, were the antithesis of all things devils existed for, and they would sack the realm of mortals to extinction if given the chance. After this, the group asked to see the pleasure gardens. They found walking paths winding between mortals frozen in glass, their expressions contorted in pain and anguish. Nix informed them that these people would have been frozen like this for decades and centuries at a time. Having had quite enough of the tour after that, the group told Nix to end the tour and just take them to the maze where they'd await the start of the hunt. Sitting in the stands that overlooked the grizzly, obsidian maze, the party were eventually joined by Erys, as well as a number of succubi and incubi, a chain devil, a large bone devil, and finally the lady Telphousila herself. She was stood atop a flying carpet that evidently belonged to her guest who stood beside her, a rakshasa. The hunt consisted of a number of mangy looking mortals being released into the maze to be pursued by a pack of hell hounds the killed them without impunity. A brief break followed, and some of the party tried some soul wine - a drink apparently made, at least in part, from mortal souls. The next hunt was a showcase of the creatures Lady Telphousila was apparently interested in purchasing from the rakshasa: three monstrous howlers. The very same mortals who had just ran the maze and been killed had been collected from the banks of the estate's lakes and were again shepherded into the maze. The howlers made even shorter work of them than the hell hounds had. Erys offered a chance for Malak to win a set of plate mail armour if he'd fight to a yield for the entertainment of everyone gathered - devils being particularly fond of oath magic users. The catch was that Malak would have to disclose the details of his oath should he be the one that yielded. When Malak didn't agree, Erys offered to let some of the party fight with him and even said the group could keep the hell cat they'd looked after, win or lose. Malak maintained his stance and refused the fight, much to Erys's disappointment. Lady Telphousila took her leave, and most of those gathered returned to the guest house where the party were staying for the evening's revels. A great spread of food, drink, and drugs was put out, both mortal fare and infernal. Some of the party took to trying annium, a stimulant Clark had a history with. Wilfred in particular had a very bad experience with the slow-mo drug's effect, falling backwards for several subjective hours. Cormorant took the opportunity to speak to Clwyd, telling her that despite saying otherwise in their early conversations, he did in fact know about a goblin junker by the name of the Manta - Madog's ship. He'd briefly been aboard it, around thirty years ago, not by his choice - they'd picked him up from floating wreckage. He was worried that by not being forthright, he'd inadvertently caused Clwyd to make a deal with these devils that she might not have otherwise. The goblin assured him that she likely would have made the deal either way. Nix told Pyt that some in his house might be able to help him peer beyond the veils of faerie glamour and potentially reclaim some of his lost memories, if he were willing to offer his mind and spirit up to a succubus for a time. The process would hurt him, for the fiend would literally be feeding on part of his soul, but it would grow back over time. The bard agreed with little hesitance and was quickly taken to bed by an incredibly attractive succubus, Nix's cousin. From the moment she touched him, his mind felt hardly his own, and soon he barely remembered what was happening at all except for throws of ecstasy unlike any he'd felt before. And then he remembered: Pyt was in a bar in a space between spaces. A cat with two tails. Patrons of all types scattered around. Surely, every language ever conceived being spoken between these peoples. And a man that defied explanation: a giant but the size of a human, in an annex, a side room off from the bustle of the enormous bar. The wall behind this creature was lined with beautiful, ornate, multi-coloured bottles. A payment was given - a steep price, but Pyt was drunk and he didn't care. A world where land and sea as you knew them were flipped. Rolling hill and pools of crystalline water. The little creature - you remembered the name for its ilk now, a quickling - hopped impatiently, called you a brat, and told you to pick a side in a raspy voice. Then the long journey through Faerie, walking towards a sun that took two weeks to sink below the horizon. You felt the lute heavy on your back for the journey. Then eventually your meeting with Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness, in all her beguiling glamour, beautiful and terrifying and compelling. Her verdant eyes looked at you and reflected your hope and your fear as she asked if you'd fight for her. And fought you did. The quickling remained with you, joined by his mates of the Gloaming Court. Mab gifted you with other servants and helpers too. Yeth hounds, and blink dogs, and canines of shadow flanked your sides. You strode into battle, the power of Faerie's glamour riding the waves of your songs. Your lute hummed with the furious strength Mab had given you. And what a life it was. For years, you skirmished with the agents of Dawn, Mab's rivals. And when you weren't fighting Titania's forces, you were within the walls of Dusk's many estates, revelling like no man had before. Creatures of untold beauty surrounded you at these galas. And you took to bed with them each night. In many ways, these moments were just as dangerous as the battles, for the agents of Dusk are not to be crossed in matters of lust and love. And though you fought for your life day and night, you thrived in it, you lived for it, and you grew strong. In your third decade of service to Mab, she revealed a truth to you. It had all just been training. Preparation. And because Mab has no need for weakness, it had also been a test. And now it was time for you to serve the original purpose of the Gloaming Court. That was when you begin facing horrors. Screams. Screams for years after that. Screams and death and chaos. Of course you defied Mab in the end, and the result was worse even than the horrors had been. The memories were painful and you'd longed to be rid of them. You wanted them gone more than anything. Then there was the tree. A fey tree. And music. And Pyt was in trouble for something again and out on his ass. The next thing was waking up with a headache and having Jeremy tug him off to make himself feel better. The rest of the party also took to rest in the lavish rooms of the estate. Most found sound, if a little sweaty, sleep. Clark, though, had a familiar-feeling lucid dream. He was on the decks of his old ship, the Tawny Owl, sat across a crate from his old captain, Bollance. The human man looked much the same as Clark remembered him, weather-beaten and leathery, except for his eyes. His eyes were speckled like Flekk's. The pair passed a bottle of rum between them and spoke. Flekk - this echo of Bollace that Clark had created - said things had been changing since Clark and the others had gone to that island and spoke with the man in the cloak. Clark had been getting stronger, and Flekk had started becoming more aware. He didn't know all the details of what was happening to them, but he knew that it had something to do with Clark's magic, the power of his faith. The others in the group had beliefs too, and those beliefs held power, but it wasn't to the same extent as with Clark. The only other person they'd encountered who Flekk thought had felt the same as Clark was Ingela. Before Clark returned to deep slumber, Flekk encouraged him to begin talking to and trusting the rest of the party. They had been together for months now, he said, and relied on each other for much. He thought it would help Clark a lot if he started talking about the burdens of these powers that Clark seemed so reluctant to even have. The party slept late the next day, with Pyt waking up feeling like a desiccated husk of a man, a pounding headache and the worst body pain he'd ever experienced from a hangover pulsing through his body. The succubus responsible was nowhere to be seen. The group spent the morning deciding on the best location for them to travel to. At midday, Nix came to them ready to return to Terca Mahres. The party had him take them somewhere near Driscoll's Territory, outside the Chelonii Atoll. The Merchant Strait. To Barge End. ------------------ I outlined all the info you learned about the infernal hierarchy on the fiend category page. If anyone wants a better understanding of the system, it might help to look there. Category:Part Two